Binance has suspended the withdrawal of USDC stablecoin. The head of the exchange, Changpeng Zhao, wrote on Twitter (the social network is blocked in Russia) that the exchange fixes an increased demand for the withdrawal of USDC. However, the problem is temporary, he said, and he expects operations to resume once banks reopen in the US.
USD Coin (USDC) is a stablecoin launched with the participation of the Coinbase exchange in 2018. The coin ranks second among stablecoins in terms of market capitalization with a figure of $43 billion. Tether (USDT) is in first place, its capitalization is $66 billion, according to CoinGecko.
Zhao explained that normally USDC withdrawals are made in US dollars through a bank in New York, but it is night in the US and banks are closed. He recommended withdrawing funds through any other stablecoins such as BUSD and USDT and promised that more flexible exchange channels would be established in the future.
In September, Binance limited support for USDC. The exchange stopped trading stablecoin and replaced it with its own BUSD coin in all services: lending, staking, Binance Pay, gift cards and other services. The changes did not affect only the withdrawal of funds: the clients of the platform could still withdraw funds in these stablecoins.
On USDC, we have seen an increase in withdrawals. However, the channel to swap from PAX/BUSD to USDC requires going through a bank in NY in USD. The banks are not open for another few hours. We expect the situation will be restored when the banks open. 1/2
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) December 13, 2022